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Lok Sabha Elections 2024: A perfect 10 at stake
Updated On: 18 May, 2024 06:55 AM IST | Mumbai | Dharmendra Jore
BJP goes all out to woo voters as Shinde and Thackeray Sena fight for originality in MMR
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Shiv Sena (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray. Pic/Ashish Raje; (right) Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde
The fifth and last phase of polling on May 20 will be the litmus test for Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde. Ten seats in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR)—six in Mumbai and four in Thane and Palghar districts)—will determine the originality of the respective factions of Shiv Sena that are fighting against each other in most places in MMR. Shiv Sena was founded in Mumbai and expanded to MMR to soon bear the fruits of power. Under Bal Thackeray, it spread out to the hinterlands, gaining power for the first time in 1995 in association with the BJP. They retained power in 2014, but unlike in 1995, the Sena could not install its CM. The pre-poll alliance had come to an end ahead of the Assembly elections, creating an opportunity for the BJP to contest solo, and emerge as the single-largest party in the wake of Narendra Modi’s anointment as the PM. The BJP made its first-ever CM in 2014. The undivided Sena joined the state government a month later. They won a majority in 2019, but in a pre-poll alliance. What happened next is history.
BJP’s progress
Between 2014 and 2019, the BJP had been able to make inroads in Mumbai. It almost beat the undivided Sena in the 2017 BMC polls and re-emerged as the largest party in the 2019 polls, not only in the state but also in Mumbai. Post 2019 elections, things have changed altogether. The BJP is still there, undivided but swollen with the induction of many top leaders from other parties. The Sena is split; so is the NCP.
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